


Dying to Try

by DoreyG



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Brain Damage, Crushes, Daemons, Getting Together, M/M, and his little dog too!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 05:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2569685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/pseuds/DoreyG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s been planning this for days, so she <i>knew</i> it’d work. She’s been testing her limits away from Fitz, learning the timetables and habits of her targets, moving around more than she has for <i>ages</i> - it had to work.</p>
<p>“Mack!”</p>
<p>It <i>had</i> to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dying to Try

The moment that she hears footsteps she’s off the bed and away, up the side of the door with all due speed, squirreling through the vent that she knew would be there and _onwards_ \- with barely a flinch or a catch or anything else to show for it.

She’s been planning this for days, so she _knew_ it’d work. She’s been testing her limits away from Fitz, learning the timetables and habits of her targets, moving around more than she has for _ages_ \- it had to work.

“Mack!”

It _had_ to.

The man, and she totally knew this would work the gladness is a _totally_ irrational sensation, pauses for a moment. And then glances up with ever so confused eyes. They start smiling when they get to her, though, so that’s good – the slow wag of Alietta’s tail at his feet is even _better_ , but she’s not going to let herself get distracted by the urge to bury her face in all that warm fur _now_.

“…I need to talk to you.”

Not _much_ , anyway.

“Sure, little lady,” Mack offers, voice as smooth as syrup – crosses his arms and leans against the wall like he has all the time in the _world_ , “just one question, though, before we start – where’s Fitz? Don’t tell me that you’ve wandered off without him…”

“Fitz is asleep,” she offers quickly, and shifts on her perch as she checks in the back of her mind that that’s true – sleepily calm, smooth and happy and not yet agitated by dark flailing. They’re good, he’s good, _she’s_ good, “in his room, which is- uh, here. I’m still within range, it doesn’t _hurt_ at all. But, um, I _need_ to speak to you – without him, when he’s not around, when he’s-“

“Asleep,” Alietta provides, with a warm loll of her tongue.

“Calm _down_ , little lady,” Mack soothes at exactly the same time, but his smile is understanding as he watches her. He’s the only one that seems to understand, these days – she’s aware that that’s probably an unhealthy kind of view to take, but it’s _true_ , “I don’t have any problem with it, I was just curious. And-“

“He likes having Fitz around,” Alietta provides for _him_ , mischievously – a flash of joy fluttering across her face as she turns it up to her human, “Everything is more _fun_ when _Fitz_ is around.”

“And that’s what I need to talk to you about!” She takes advantage of the pause, leaping in before Mack can start lecturing his daemon with a smile twitching around his full lips (she’s noticed, Fitz has been staring at them enough that only an _idiot_ would fail to), “You see… Um, well. _Everything_ is more fun for Fitz when you’re around too. Literally everything. Ever.”

The urge to lecture flees from Mack’s eyes.

For the first time _ever_ , or at least she presumes ever because Mack looks like he would’ve been very calm even popping out of his mum, something other than geniality passes over his face – as he looks slowly up at her, and _stares_.

“The _science_. Though he’s always enjoyed the science – ask anybody, if they’ll stop flinching away from the subject of _us_ for long enough to… Um,” she bites her lip, to stop herself from the bitterness, forces herself to carry on after only the _slightest_ pause, “and, er, the _talking_. And the times you bring him cake, and the times you promise to bring him cake, and the times you look like you’re about to take your shirt off and he gets to justifiably think about your chest…”

“Whoa,” Alietta says, quietly impressed.

“And the way you smile at him, and the way you actually _chat_ to him – though I may have already said that – and the way you let him chat back instead of flailing everywhere and making it _all_ about yourself, and the way you look at him, and the way you look at me, and the way you treat _us_ like we’re actually _normal_ instead of broken pieces of machinery that are just getting in the way-“

“Whoa,” Mack echoes, even quieter with his eyes still wide.

“-And, er, _yeah_ ,” she takes in a deep breath, shifts her position again – Mack appears stunned, but she’s gone too far now. This has to go well, it absolutely _has_ to, “he just basically really, really likes you. As a person and a friend and a _incredibly_ sexy thing for gawping at and a potential romantic partner and… Yeah. All of those things, together, at once.”

There’s a long silence.

“… _Okay_ ,” Mack says carefully, and his expression doesn’t say rejection – it says hope, and dreams, and an odd wistful longing that she never thought she’d see on anybody else, “that’s very, _very_ good to know. Um. How-?”

“But he won’t ever _tell_ you!” A pity that she’s been too impatient lately, too riled up and hurt and unable to stop remembering the _fzzt_ of her body almost fading away, to _ever_ stop herself – all she can do is keep flailing, and flailing, and _flailing_ until even the other daemons back away from her with wide eyes and much the same stuck-in-the-mud expressions as their humans above them, “he won’t ever make a _move_. And it was bad before the accident, _so_ bad, but it’s even _worse_ now – the words keep catching in his throat and I can’t breathe and he’s so _scared_ and the way they _look_ at him-!”

“Ysseica-“

“He doesn’t want _you_ to look at him like that, ever,” the confession trembles its way out of her, from tail to mouth, and she’s left exhausted after it – flopping down the wall and shaking gently, “and so that’s why he won’t say the words. He doesn’t want the only person that treats him like a normal person, that treats _us_ like a normal unit, to go away – like everybody else has.”

Mack is still staring at her, wide eyed and hopeful.

But now… There’s something else in his eyes, something deeper. It’s nothing _nasty_ , she’d pick up on that instantly if it was, but it is something- _different_. Not pitying, not cold, not desperately scared in a way that they can’t name but that’s obviously there nonetheless. Sympathetic, warm, desirous in a way that makes her fur prickle with memories of what it was like not to be a freak show. _Not_ something to be gawked at and flinched from and treated like an unsettled young one at every possible opportunity.

She takes a deep breath.

“ _Ysseica_ …”

She _cannot_ screw this up.

“But I don’t believe you’d do that,” she says, calmer than she has been for months – and allows herself to inch a little closer, down the wall and reaching slowly out to him, “and _he_ doesn’t believe you’d do that – not really, not in the _important_ bits. He’s scared, yes, but he _wants_ \- and he knows, not that deep down, that you want him too.”

Mack’s jaw falls slowly open, around another whisper of her name.

“Mack-“

“And that’s why _you_ have to make the first move,” and Alietta saves her – saves _both_ of them – at exactly the right moment. With a calm tilt of her head, and an _open_ expression of affection fluttering across her beautifully fluffy face, “ask him out to dinner, or something. Or bowling! Or – oh, oh! – you could ask him to play _games_ with you, and then introduce him to all those modifications that you don’t show _anybody_.”

Mack stares at her for another second, expression _almost_ unreadable.

…Mack glances down at Alietta, expression becoming _very much_ readable as he shifts on his heels and gives an awkward cough, “you-“

“I will _not_ hush!” Alietta sniffs at him, and scuffs her paw against his leg in a gesture so familiar that she just has to _hug_ herself at it, “you _like_ him, Alphonso MacKenzie, and don’t you even try to deny it! You think he’s cute, you think he’s smart, you bring him _gifts_ , you know _exactly_ how he likes his tea and you haven’t known that since you had that huge crush on Melissa Schafer in third grade-“

“ _You_ -“

“Stop _denying_ yourself,” Alietta sighs, huffs – somehow manages to rear up, her tail wagging with the effort, to place her paws ever so neatly on her human’s stubborn hip, “you want him, he wants you. Can’t you just let yourself be _happy_ , for _once_ in your life?”

They stare deeply into each other’s eyes for a moment, caught in a stand off that she can understand well enough from the days before they almost drowned.

…One.

Two.

Three-

“Thank you, Yssi,” Mack sighs as he turns back to her, but there’s a smile on his face – warm, and open, and so hopeful that she almost starts hugging herself again at the very _thought_ of it, “I- can’t promise _when_ , but I’ll talk to him about it soon. Very soon. Very, _very_ soon depending on whether Hydra tries to kill us all again tomorrow.”

She exchanges a bright, _buzzing_ look with Alietta. Almost, before she remembers what exactly is keeping her up, pumps her tail in _triumph_ as they smile at her, and nod at her, and move down the corridor with ever so polite farewells.

She can feel the warmth of his smile like a caress, can feel it right up until Fitz yawns into his pillow in the morning – and wakes up with his lips curling up for the first time in _months_.

**Author's Note:**

> You wait YEARS for a good idea involving daemons, and then 2 come along at once!
> 
> Fitz's daemon is something known as a brown lemur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_brown_lemur#mediaviewer/File:Brown_Lemur_in_Andasibe.jpg), and her name is Ysseica. I picked her because I wanted Fitz to have some sort of lemur as his daemon, and Brown Lemurs are both quite smart and good at resisting toxins.
> 
> Mack's daemon is an Australian Shepherd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Shepherd#mediaviewer/File:Australian_Shepherd_rot_tricolor.jpg) known as Alietta. I always wanted a dog for Mack, BECAUSE HE'S JUST SO DARNED LOVELY, and Australian Shepherds are both really smart and really helpful. So, that definitely seemed to work.
> 
> I have headcanons for other SHIELD daemons, but I'm not sure if I'm ever going to write a fic with them in it. We shall see, I suppose!


End file.
